Ravi Mhatre is a co-founder at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a venture capital firm intent on serving the world’s most extraordinary people building tomorrow’s companies today. Mhatre’s extensive experience in technology gives him both the passion and knowledge necessary for his role at Lightspeed. After a transient childhood and a thorough education, the young Mhatre worked at the cutting edge of software and other new technologies. From there, he began investing in the companies that continue to serve customers and make the world a better place.
Mhatre’s story demonstrates how personality and circumstance can combine to form remarkable drive and conviction. Mhatre has proven uniquely capable of driving the world toward a brighter future, one startup at a time.
What is Lightspeed Venture Partners all about?
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 400 companies globally, including Snap, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, OYO, Guardant, Affirm, and GrubHub. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage $10.5B across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India, China, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I went to Stanford, with a BA in economics, a BA in electrical engineering, and an MBA from the Stanford Business School. I have run a product management group at Silicon Graphics, worked in management consulting at Booz Allen, and worked as a software engineer for BDIS a Silicon Valley biotech instrument manufacturer. Once I got a taste for venture capital, I decided to co-found Lightspeed Venture Partners in 1999.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- Sales/Networking: I can’t stress how important relationship building is in my industry. You are constantly working to expand your network if you want to grow your business.
- Tenacity/Perseverance: It’s imperative to have the ability to believe in yourself and not get discouraged easily, it may take years before you get your first big win, and no one is holding your hand along the way. If you need instant gratification and can’t recover from setbacks along the way, this isn’t the right business for you.
- Critical Thinking/Independent Learner: You should always be absorbing new information – doing, listening, learning from every experience you have. You should never stop evolving and perfecting your craft. We look for both investors and founders at Lightspeed who are doers, problem solvers, and can think on their feet.
What are your plans for the future, and how do you plan to grow this company?
Lightspeed has no plans of slowing down in 2022. This year we are focused on growth – specifically in our global markets. We will be looking at new markets and investment opportunities to expand our global footprint, including Web3 and blockchain, an area we’ve been investing in since 2013.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
We’re in a new world where for a time, one hundred percent of engagement with founders was happening digitally, primarily over zoom. I think the realization is that as good as our digital technologies are, they are far from replacing the human element toward building relationships and trust. I don’t think we’ll go back to the baseline of where we were before, where the preponderance of meetings are in person. I think for the foreseeable future we are going to see a hybrid work model. Technology and remote meetings create leverage and a massive productivity windfall, so that will continue to exist. Additionally, as a global firm with founders in multiple geos, remote technology allows us to be more inclusive of a broader network.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
At Lightspeed we have a true internal understanding of who we are. We know our strengths and we know the type of companies we want to invest in. We look for companies that are scalable. We look to founders with clear vision – we look for people who want to go on the ride with us, and who are ready to take the journey to growth and success. We have a significant amount of capital and a team with decades of experience investing in the earliest stages of a company all the way to IPO. We have a team with access to resources across the globe, and this sets us apart.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
I have a very diverse background and education which allowed me to explore a handful of career paths before I landed a job in venture capital. I had a terrific mentor at my first firm. He really took a chance on me, believed in me, and taught me so much. Ultimately, he helped me realize this is what I was meant to do. After I had this realization I almost immediately knew what I had to do next. If I was going to do this, I had to build it on my own. My original partners, also Stanford classmates, had the same mentality as me. We shared a passion for technology and we understood the ways in which we could help those people build great companies. They were on board to start the firm and we decided to go for it – that is how Lightspeed Venture Partners began. We didn’t exactly know what we were doing at the time, but were determined to learn and succeed. And here we are today 22 years later.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
I am always learning new things in business and personally, I am always open to reinventing myself. Part of that is doing, listening, and learning from every experience I have. I hope I never stop evolving as an investor and human.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
It might sound a bit counterintuitive, but listening to the founders I work with and the founder community around me. Some people think that churning meetings and filling your day with as many meetings as possible is the definition of productivity. I disagree. To me, productivity is making sure you are getting the most out of every interaction. I make it a point to listen, truly listen, to everyone I interact with so I can ensure we are on the same page and have a clear view of where we want to go moving forward.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
I am extremely passionate about what I do. Some people like to garden or golf. I’m interested in technology. If I could choose any career I wanted, I’d be doing what I do now.
What is your definition of success?
In venture capital, success is measured in years and decades, not in dollars. For me, success is having a decades-long career in a challenging, ever-changing industry.
How do you personally overcome fear?
I never allow myself to look at a situation and think of how bad it could be if we fail. I always look at how great this opportunity can be if we succeed. That is what keeps me going. That is how we collectively achieve our goals at Lightspeed. I do not allow the fear of failure to hold me back from succeeding.
How can readers get in touch with you?
All of my contact info is available on the Lightspeed website: https://lsvp.com
